| Friday, November 3
By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com |
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Keith Primeau is 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. Bobby Holik is 6-4, 230.
One entered the Eastern Conference finals with a concussion that he
refused to allow his team to publicize -- and perhaps treat -- the way it
should have been. The other entered this series with his own head completely
screwed on straight, but with a lot of empty gooseggs dotting his recent
playoff résumé.
|  | | Primeau's physical game may have ended John Madden's run in the playoffs. |
One is a second-line center by virtue of a recent, but effective demotion.
The other is a second-line center by virtue of his ability to cause a
commotion in the other team's scoring ranks.
One is a former checking line center who grew into scoring line roles with
his last team and this one, the other a former go-to player who at the ripe
old age of 29 is developing a reputation as one of the top checking centers
in the league.
Primeau vs. Holik.
Call it a draw, even though it's
closer to a duel.
"The role for me changes, depending on what line we play against," said
Holik, once recruited by the Hartford Whalers (10th overall pick in 1989) as
a power playmaker, but who long ago grew into a two-way force in the middle
for the New Jersey Devils. "For us now, I don't know if we're going to play
against the Primeau line the whole time or not. But if I get the opportunity
to score against them, I'm more than willing to do that. And if it's just
checking, I'll be more than willing to do that, too.
"I'm here to win and whatever that takes, I'll do."
It now appears that winning is going to take a lot more than what Bobby Holik or
any other Devil thought it would, as their hold and hex on the Flyers seemed
to crumble in the space of 20 remarkable minutes in Philadelphia on Tuesday
night.
With a sudden flush of youth by Rick Tocchet and an amazingly courageous
performance by linemate Primeau, the Flyers came from a two-goal deficit to
score a goal in the final minute of the second period and twice more in the
first two minutes of the third to hammer out a 4-3 victory which tied the
series as it heads to the Meadowlands for Game 3 on Thursday night.
Tocchet had a hand -- not to mention a crosscheck, spear and smoothly
kicking skate -- in three of the four Flyers goals. But it was the big man to
his left who not only set up Tocchet's game-tying goal, but fueled his fire
all night long.
"To me," Tocchet said, "Keith Primeau is a warrior."
He certainly was on this night, pairing up with a couple of older carbon
copies in Tocchet and Keith Jones on a reworked Flyers line that was intended
to soften the painful effects that Holik's line had on them in Game 1.
"That's why we put Jonesy there," said Flyers coach Craig Ramsay, who
moved Simon Gagne to top line wing after Daymond Langkow was injured and went
with a grittier second-line look with Jones. "That's a big line with Holik
and Randy McKay (and Sergei Brylin). We wanted to match up with them a little
better physically, and I think we were able to do that."
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His head must be feeling fine. Unless it's completely mush, and he's just not thinking. ” |
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— Flyers goalie Brian Boucher on Primeau playing soon after suffering a concussion. |
The result was as entertaining as it was exhausting; as rancorous as it
was remarkable. Primeau, all of a week after suffering that concussion in
Game 6 of the conference semifinals in Pittsburgh, had been trading bumps
with Holik and checks by ultimate warrior Scott Stevens all game long. So
after one more Holik annoyance, Primeau decided he'd had enough -- but that's
when McKay stepped in.
About a foot shorter and perhaps three measures of gray matter light of
Primeau, McKay is also a fierce fighter.
"His head must be feeling fine," Flyers goalie Brian Boucher observed of
Primeau. "Unless it's completely mush, and he's just not thinking."
Perhaps it should be noted that even professional boxers are required to
take a full month off between matches when they are knocked unconscious.
Primeau took three days off after he was knocked silly by Bob Boughner. And here he was, squaring off with a guy quite capable of ringing his bell to
a 10-count.
Of course, this is the playoffs.
"Holik just wanted to give me a cheap shot there," said Primeau. "But he
only does it when Randy is on the ice ... I don't know if our guys were
pleased, or if they were looking at me like I had six heads when that
happened. But I thought it was important for the team and for me. But I know
where my wife (Lisa) sits. She's out there cursing my name. She's going to
give it to me when I get home. I'll probably get hit harder than I did in the
fight."
And certainly harder than Holik had hit him in all of Game 2. Not that
Holik is completely adverse to the rough stuff. It's just that he's learned
how to accept his role for whatever the situation calls. This one called for
Holik to instigate rather than engage. But it was McKay who jumped in too
soon ... and accidentally awoke a Flyers team which at that point was dying a
rapid death.
But Holik said he wasn't surprised.
|
And then there's Eric
|
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Fans of Eric Lindros who thought he was long buried by an accidental face-bump with minor league buddy Francis Lessard May 4 -- which the club and
concussion specialist James Kelly called his fifth career concussion and
third in less than four months -- rest assured you haven't seen the last of
your hero, and might even see him again before the Flyers' playoff run is
over.
Then again, maybe you won't.
Will he return or won't he? Not even Lindros knows for sure.
Meeting the press between periods of Game 2 against the Devils, Lindros
hit his innate replay button and said he felt great, was headache free and
skating well.
No, he said, it wasn't at all true that this latest mishap had brought an
end to his season, as Canadian wire service eulogists reported. But yes,
Lindros said, it is true that all physical signs point to the possibility of
his playing before this Eastern Conference finals series with the Devils will
bump, grind and crash to an end. Then again, all the signs haven't been read
by Lindros' doctors yet.
"(Even) if we're up 3-1 and I get clearance to play, then it's got no
bearing on it at all," Lindros said. "I just want to get as much playing time
in as possible. I want to get in and help out."
But earlier, he said, "We're not dealing with a whole lot of time, so to
jam in as much as possible in a short period of time, that's what I'm looking
forward to doing this week."
So will he or won't he? Pick an answer. If you can figure it out.
Lindros indicated that even though he's on a tentative timetable, it could
be bumped up if his rehab continues to progress. He rode a bike and skated on
his own the past two days and will do so again today. Lindros is also on a
weightlifting regimen. His collision with Lessard may have slowed him down,
but he's obviously pumped up now.
"You're not functioning at all the way you're used to," Lindros said,
describing how he felt in the wake of the Lessard collision. "Then you get to
a point of where you just accept it and everything's fine. (You think)
there's still a lot of gas left in the tank ... I'm sure there were three or
four (hits) in the first period tonight that would be as abrasive. But the
gas tank wasn't filled."
Later, trying to reinstate the positive mood, Lindros added, "I gotta
believe the gas station's still open."
So he'll undergo a base-line test Monday which he hopes will convince
Kelly to clear Lindros for practice, probably beginning Tuesday. Still,
Lindros said he hopes to travel with the team North Jersey this week. So at
this pace, he might want to push that return to practice up, too.
Who knows?
-- Rob Parent
|
"They're looking at it as a desperate situation for them," said Holik.
"They don't want to go back (to Jersey) down 2-0. But at the same time, if
we want to be successful, we don't want to let them back in the series. We've
played a few games as if it were a Game 7, and that's what we want to keep
doing. We try to play every playoff game as a Game 7."
He hardly ever did, the big Czech kid who was a puzzle the Whalers never
came close to figuring out. So badly did they undervalue their former
heralded top-round pick that Holik was traded to New Jersey along with a
second-round choice -- who turned out to be current third-line left wing Jay
Pandolfo -- for goalie enigma Sean Burke and defender Eric Weinrich on
Aug. 28, 1992.
Though the Whalers made the deal because they needed a top goalie, history
does not look kind on them for that trade. Then again, Holik wasn't an
immediate smash in the swamp, either.
He scored just 56 goals through his first four full seasons with the
Devils, but was able to balance those numbers by developing his very
raw defensive skills. He and McKay were a big part of the Devils' 1995
Stanley Cup championship team, puzzling conference finals victim Philadelphia
and overrunning Detroit in the Finals with their "Crash Line" tactics.
Holik then really emerged in 1996-97 with 23 goals and 62 points, and
slightly bettered those numbers in each of the next two years. This past
season, however, his numbers (23 goals, 46 points) took a slight plunge. Not
for anything he did or didn't do, but simply because his role called for it.
This year's Devils team doesn't need Bobby Holik on the top line crashing
his way to the net. It just needed somebody able to stop the other team's top
offensive players from doing the same thing to Martin Brodeur.
"It's not science. It's basic things," said Holik. "To be successful, you
have to sacrifice. If it's just checking that's called for, it's checking you
have to do. Or if it's not being on power plays or whatever, you do it. I
still want to score, but it's just that we have a role to play to help the
team and I have to play it to the best of my abilities.
"It took me a few years, definitely, to become more of a complete player.
It really happened during a time in which Jacques Lemaire was the coach, and
I give a lot of credit to him for helping me be a two-way player. He didn't
single me out, it was just the way he made his players all play like part of
a team like this."
It is exactly how Holik played in Game 1 of this Devils-Flyers conference
championship renewal, sending a flood of bad memories back to Flyers fans as
he crashed, burned and even buried his first playoff goal in three years
behind Boucher. Nothing special, Holik said after that series opener last
Sunday: "For me, it's just a bonus for the work that I put in."
So it was in Game 1; so it would be for Primeau in Game 2.
Holik vs. Primeau. Primeau vs. Holik. The war is in its early stages, but
this premier battle is already well underway.
Around the East
Kudos to the Florida Panthers for re-upping the deal
for general manager Bryan Murray. He's turned them back around into a
competitive team by bravely committing Wayne Huizenga's money into Pavel
Bure's many European bank accounts. Though they were swept in the first round
this year by the Devils, it's a tribute to coach Terry Murray and big bro the
GM that their team was back in the playoffs. Never thought they'd really
recover from that Stu Barnes-Jason Woolley trade for Chris Wells three years ago.
Shocker in New York (well, not really): Glen Sather spent
the weekend touring Broadway, and apparently interviewing a second time for
the Rangers general manager's opening. He's been the frontrunning candidate
all along. Might he be seriously considering the offer?
By the way, if
Slats says no, Don Maloney is next in line.
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com. |  |
